High School

Volleyball: Woodland holds off East Catholic in Class M BY KYLE BRENNANRepublican-American

BEACON FALLS — For the Woodland volleyball team Wednesday night, things were so easy that they actually became difficult.

The top-seeded Hawks breezed through the first two games, saw the middle two slip away and rebounded in the fifth to knock off No. 16 East Catholic, 3-2, in the Class M state tournament second round.

Game scores were 25-20, 25-6, 25-27, 22-25 and 15-9.

Woodland (22-1), which will host No. 8 Tolland on Friday night in a rematch of last year's tournament semifinals, led wire to wire in each of the first two games. Brianna Pacileo (match-high 21 kills) pounded the clinching kill in the first, and Samantha Lee's 14-0 service run in the second helped the Hawks cruise.

"I was just moving it around on the court and seeing where spots were open," said Lee, who contributed match highs of 38 assists and eight aces. "I was just doing my best to make passes tough."

In the second, Lee took serve with a 6-1 lead and turned it into a 20-1 advantage. She recorded four aces and a kill during that streak, but Woodland coach Jim Amato said it was a double-edged sword for the Naugatuck Valley League champions.

"She served the snot out of it," Amato said. "But I think when we got into game three and we didn't have that run, it stunted us a little bit because we didn't really have to play much in the second."

East Catholic made its comeback by limiting Pacileo to a combined six kills in the third and fourth games. Woodland held a 21-16 lead in the third, but it committed nine errors in the last 15 points of the third due partly to an injury to libero Rachel Starkey.

"When Rachel Starkey went into the wall, I think it tightened up the team a little bit," Amato said.

Leah Franzluebbers (16 kills) led the Eagles' comeback and sent the match to a decisive fifth game with a kill to end the fourth.

Hannah Deegan calmed her team in the fifth by starting the game with a 4-0 service run. The Hawks never looked back, finishing the win on an East Catholic error.

"I think serve is what I'm best at," Deegan said. "Making the first few points there, I wanted to bring the team's energy up and keep it for the rest of the game."

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